Support grows for striking faculty at Oregon Institute of Technology
Oregon Tech faculty picket line (Photo: OT-AAUP Facebook)
The struggle is the first public university faculty strike in the state’s history, and the first contract being negotiated by the Oregon Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors (OT-AAUP) since it was established in late-2018 to cover full-time faculty, instructors and librarians.
Dozens of faculty, staff and students showed their support on picket lines in the first days of the strike at the main OIT campus in Klamath Falls, a small city in the southern part of Oregon near Medford. There are also smaller groups of faculty on strike at the Wilsonville campus, as well as five dental hygiene professors who work at an Oregon Tech program based at Chemeketa Community College in Salem. According to one post on Twitter, local K-12 teachers even joined the picket line on Tuesday.
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April 26 marks the start of the first public university strike in Oregon’s history. After 550 days of negotiation, the faculty, represented by American Association of University Professors, were forced to withhold their labor from an administration which refused to bargain in good faith. The faculty have demanded a modest raise, secure benefits, and a reasonable and clearly defined workload.
Faculty at Oregon Institute of Technology have been trying to negotiate for these benefits for over 3 years. After exhausting all other options through existing channels, they unionized through AAUP in 2018.
OIT students support faculty strikers. Photo used with permission.
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